Christmas Shopping Insights 2020 Ebook · 2020. 12. 14. · When asked about the timing for Christmas shopping in 2020, no significant changes were found in the typical timings for

Christmas Shopping Insights2020

RESEARCH BASED ON 400+ RESPONDENTSCHRISTMAS SHOPPING INSIGHTS 2020

© 2020 Esprimi

© 2020 Esprimi

Intro


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The holiday season is a particularly important time for retail shopping, with shoppers spending more during the Christmas holidays than they do throughout the rest of the year. This year, however, the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have undoubtedly upended the retail industry. Many stores have had to temporarily draw the curtains on their physical presence and shift their business online at some point in time, and this has led many to rethink the way they do business and interact with their customers.

But, companies aren’t the only ones who have had to make major adjustments. The pandemic has instilled new behaviours in consumers too and this has led to a major change in shopping trends. Consumers are now spending more and more time and money online, and Christmas shopping habits for 2020 are no exception. Drawing from research conducted recently by our team on Christmas shopping habits, in this report we explore how consumer behaviour has changed amid the coronavirus pandemic.



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Demog-raphicsmatter

One size doesn’t fit all -- not in the world of research, anyways.

Different people or groups of people have different characteristics, personalities, attitudes, behaviours and habits, and the only way to clearly represent any one given population or a group within that population is by applying a scientific method of sampling.

Results can only ever truly be representative, and thus valid if the sample studied mirrors the targeted population down to the last detail, and that’s why our Christmas Shopping Insights study, like all our other research projects, is nationally representative through and through.

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CHRISTMAS SHOPPING INSIGHTS 2020CHRISTMAS SHOPPING INSIGHTS 2020

© 2020 Esprimi

In this report, we asked a representative sample of 400 Maltese nationals aged 16+ to discuss their shopping habits in an online survey.

To properly gauge shopping trends, a quota based on age and gender was implemented in order to ensure a spread of the general population.

We also looked at the relationship between the demographic characteristics of individuals and shopping habits. Here’s what we found out...

Method-ology



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Habits in shopping times...A comparison with previous years

When asked about the timing for Christmas shopping in 2020, no significant changes were found in the typical timings for holiday shopping when compared to previous years.

Similar to previous years, 58.1% would do their shopping between November and early December (62.6% claimed to have similar timings prior to 2020).

This year, however, the number of participants who claimed they will not be buying any presents have risen from 8.8% in previous years to 17.3% this year, a difference of 8.5% -- a number that when taken into context is somewhat significant.

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING INSIGHTS 2020CHRISTMAS SHOPPING INSIGHTS 2020

© 2020 Esprimi


© 2020 Esprimi

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0

5

10

15

20

25

3026.5% 25.8%

120.8%

15.3%

8.8%

2.0% 0.8% 0.3%

November At some point in

December

Black Friday Weekend

Early December

during publicholidays

I don’t usually buy

presents

Christmas week

January Sales

period

During the week between

Christmas

28.3%

22.5%

18.8%17.3%%

11%%

1.3%% 0.8% 0.3%

November At some point in

December

Black Friday Weekend

Early December

during publicholidays

I don’t usually buy

presents

Christmas week

January Sales

period

During the week between

Christmas

Typical Timing for Christmas Shopping 2020 Timing for Christmas Shopping



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Changes in Christmas spend...

When asked how much they plan on spending on Christmas 2020 shopping, more than one-third (38.7%) of respondents said they planned on spending less than what they spent on Christmas shopping in 2019, 56.7% said they planned on spending just about the same amount of money as 2019, and 5.1% said they planned on spending more.

Amongst the most popular reasons as to why respondents planned on spending less this year were less social occasions (57.8%), lack of comfort going out (46.9%) and a change in one’s income situation (45.3%).

Contrarily, amongst the most popular reasons as to why respondents planned on spending more in 2020 were a bigger family (64.7%) and more expensive gifts (11.8%). Other statements such as compensating for previous years and an increase in spend on decorations since they’re spending more time at home received scores of 5.9% or lower.

A comparison with 2019


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0 10 20 30 40 50 60

57.8%

46.9%

45.3%

39.8%

22.7%

Less social occasions

Not comfortable to go out shopping

Income situation has changed

Fewer gifts

No travelling

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

57.8%

11.8%

5.9%

5.9%

Bigger family/new family members

More expensive gifts

Compensating for last year

More gifts required

More money spent on decorations since staying home

More social occasions than last year

5.9%

5.9%

Reasons for spending less Reasons for spending more



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A closer look at 2020budgets...

When asked about the budgets allocated towards Christmas shopping, results revealed a dip in the amount of money that people were willing to spend on festive shopping this year. In fact, whilst the majority of respondents still planned to shop, some reported being more conscious in their spending.

Whilst 53.1% would normally spend below €300 that percentage has increased to 70.3% for 2020 Christmas shopping budgets.


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ShoppingmethodsPre-2020

In pre-Covid days, there were 84.6% of mentions indicating physical visits to outlets for Christmas shopping, 63.1% mentions for online stores and 41.7% for directly shopping through vendors' websites or Facebook pages

In terms of preferred methods of shopping 57.1% claimed that in-store visits would be their first preference for shopping although Generation Z and young Millennials still typically preferred to shop online via online stores, such as Ebay and Amazon.

A look at preferred pre-Covid shopping methods...

RESEARCH BASED ON 400+ RESPONDENTS


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0 20 40 60 80 100

81.5% I prefer to physically see the item before I buy it

Immediate product purchase

Exchange and return policy

After sales service

More professional advice

Protection of my personal data

Consider it an outing

I enjoy it

Interact with people/ sales people

Meeting with friends

66.7%

32.8%

19%

14.3%

3.7%

0.5%

0.5%

0.5%

0.5%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

81.5% 24 hour access to purchases

Home/Free delivery

Price comparisons

Avoiding crowds

Wider choice

Access to customer reviews

Delivery time

Cheaper/ better deals

Hassle free aftersales

66.7%

32.8%

19%

14.3%

3.7%

0.5%

0.5%

0.5%

0.5%

Reasons for preferring physical shops

Reasons for preferring online shopping


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Shoppingmethods2020A look at preferred post-Covid shopping methods...

One look at preferred 2020 shopping methods, clearly illustrates how the tables have turned this year, with online store shopping (64%) surpassing in-store shopping (59.5%) amongst respondents.

Use of other types of online shopping methods such as vendor websites and vendor Facebook shops/direct orders via Facebook messenger were also on the rise this year when compared to previous years with an increase in use of 26.8% and 14.8%, respectively.

A closer look at demographics once again revealed that the younger the age the more likely it was for respondents to engage in online shopping. Older audiences, particularly those aged 45-65+, on the other hand, still favoured in-store shopping (67.1%) over online shopping (50.3%), although the former was on the decline with a drop in 24.5% of mentions for in-store shopping for 2020 compared to previous years for this specific cohort.

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0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0102030405060708057.1%

35.3%

7.3%

Personally going to

stores

Online stores like Amazon, Ebay, ASOS,

etc.

Vendor Websites

(Having also a physicasl

store)

64.0%59.5%

34.1%

15.7%

0.3%

Online stores like Amazon, Ebay, ASOS,

etc.

Personally going to

stores

Vendor Websites

(Having also a physicasl

store)

Vendor Facebook

Shops/ Direct orders

Ask someone else to go

Gift money

Gift vouchers

Still undecided

Typically Preferred Shopping Method 2020 Preferred Shopping Method

Vendor Facebook

Shops/ Direct orders through

Facebook Messenger

0.9% 0.3% 0.3% 0.3%


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Changes in online shopping habits...

37.7%

9.6%

45.4%

7.7%

I will buy/ have bought more gifts online than I usually do

I will buy/ have bought about the same amount of gifts online than I usually do Lorem ipsum

I will buy/ have bought less gifts online than I usually do

Don’t know

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Importantretailerattributes

01020304050607080

60.4%55.3%

52.3%

31.4%

20.2%

Getting a great deal

Products and brands that are of

high quality and can be

trusted

Variety of

product/styles

COVID-19 safety

precaution

Well organised

and easy to navigate website/

mobile app

Ease ofproduct returns

Well-kept,clutter-free

store

Ratings and

reviews

Most Important Attributes When Selecting a Retailer

15.4% 14.8% 13.3%

24.8%

0.3%

Ease ofcheckoutprocess

Persona-lisation

of items


Impact of COVID-19 on shoppinghabits

When asked to rate a Likert scale of 1 to 5 about how likely it is that the pandemic affected their interest in physical visits to retail outlets (with a score of 5 indicating a great impact), participants gave a rating of 3.5.

What’s interesting, is that albeit similar, the ratings differed by a few points across people of different demographic classifications. For instance, ratings amongst respondents who only received a primary level of education (4.4) or were aged 65+ (3.9) were higher than those of younger (3.5) and more educated (3.5) respondents. A closer look at these results, also revealed that females (3.7) were more likely than males (3.4) to be affected by the pandemic when it came to physically visiting an outlet.

When asked about what stopped them from physically going to stores, the most popular reasons as to why people refrained from visiting outlets were a high risk of infection (84.5%), a lack of proper adherence to COVID-19 guidelines by stores (44.7), vulnerable family members (32%), and self vulnerability (19.9%), with the rest of the statements such as quarantining and not meeting with people receiving a score of 0.6% or lower.

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0 20 40 60 80 100

84.5% High risk of infection

Not all stores implement the guidelines required

Someone in my family is a vulnerable individual

I am a vulnerable individual

I am under quarantine

People not following COVID-19 guidelines

Decided to not meet people

Many people touching products on shelves

Old stock on display due to lack of sales

44.7%

32%

19.9%

0.6%

0.3%

0.3%

0.3%

0.3%

Barriers to going to a physical store

3.5Mean Score

Effect of pandemic on physically visiting retail outlets


When asked to rate certain gifts in terms of preference -- clothes/shoes (41.8%), money (28.5%) and technology (26.6%) were among the highest options rated, followed by Homeware (21.9%), open gift vouchers (21.7%) and books (19.3%), amongst others.

Among the least preferred gift options were soft toys, model contsruction toys, video games, gift vouchers from specific outlets, educational toys and board games.

Once again, when looking at demographics we found that gift preferences differed across different age groups, genders and education levels.

For instance, technology was among the top 3 preferred gifts across younger respondents, males and those with higher levels of education, but significantly less popular among respondents aged 55+, females and people with lower levels of education.

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Preferredgifts...


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Christmas Shopping Insights 2020 Ebook · 2020. 12. 14. · When asked about the timing for Christmas shopping in 2020, no significant changes were found in the typical timings for